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Corrupt bureaucrats' houses make way for schools in Bihar

February 02, 2012 15:37 IST

It's an instance of how the anti-corruption crackdown in Bihar is lighting up the lives of children in the state.

A fortnight after the palatial residence of state bureaucrat Shiv Shankar Verma was confiscated following an anti-corruption trial and subsequently converted into a school, now it is the turn of former state police chief Narayan Mishra to see similar action.

The special vigilance court in Patna has ordered the confiscation of the assets of Narayan Mishra and his wife on charges of having assets disproportionate to his known sources of income

An official in the chief minister office told rediff.com on Thursday that the Patna district magistrate will executed the vigilance court's orders and confiscate the premises.

Soon, a school shall be made operational there, he added.

Another official said that Chief Minister Nitish Kumar was the only leader in the country, who had given a free hand to prosecute corrupt officials, including top ranking Indian Administrative Service and Indian Police Service officials.

"Till a few months ago, it was beyond the imagination that a former state director general of police will be in the firing line," the official said.

This is the first time a court has ordered to confiscation of assets of an IPS officer, who was the state police chief.

Mishra was tried under the Bihar Special Court Act, 2009. A vigilance case was lodged against Mishra in 2007 for amassing assets, including property valued at Rs 1.40 crore. Last month, the special vigilance court in Patna ordered the confiscation of the properties, including houses of former divisional forest officer Bhola Prasad and his wife Maya Prasad.

Prasad, an Indian Forest Service officer, was booked in 2007 for amassing assets after a raid was conducted at his residence in Patna and Nalanda districts.

The assets, as per a vigilance probe, were worth Rs 76 lakh and included 16 plots of land in his wife's name. Investigations further revealed that Prasad and his wife owned a building, six plots at Phulwarisharif in Patna, one plot at Bahadurpur under Agamkuan police station in Patna, land at Chitkohara in Patna, Helal village in Ranchi and Biharsharif in Nalanda.

In December, the Bihar government had confiscated a two-storey house of suspended treasury clerk Girish Kumar located in the posh Kadamkuan area in Patna. The clerk was accused of amassing assets worth Rs 51 lakh.

In June last year, the government had confiscated a three-storey house of former minor irrigation secretary Shiv Shankar Verma, an IAS officer. He was the first officer to face such action under the Bihar Special Courts Act, 2009. Later, the government opened schools for poor children in both the properties.

According to state vigilance officials, 87 cases of disproportionate assets have been registered in Bihar under prevention of corruption act.

Proceedings to confiscate properties of some more officials, including former state drug controller Y K Jaiswal, revenue officer Yogendera Prasad Singh, engineer Srikant Prasad and former Rajbhasha Parishad director B N Chowdhary, have also been initiated.